NAIJ.com gathers that the officials gave assurances to the governor that the first batch of newly recruited teachers would be ready for deployment by the middle of February, as they confirmed that they had concluded marking the scripts of the new recruits.

The governor had a meeting with the 23 chairmen of the state’s local government areas and their education secretaries on Monday, January 15, and received reports on schools in all 23 councils.

The spokesman to the governor, Samuel Aruwan, also stated that the strike called by the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) had been ignored by most teachers in the state who were actually reporting to work.

In a statement, Aruwan said: “The field reports indicated that NUT officials are persisting in their harassment of teachers that are reporting for duty.

“This illegal action is being aggravated by the seizure of school attendance registers by some of the union officials.

“The meeting also heard that many teachers who did not apply anew, or were dissuaded by their union from taking the recruitment test are requesting a second chance.

“This illegal action is being aggravated by the seizure of school attendance registers by some of the union officials.

“The meeting also heard that many teachers who did not apply anew, or were dissuaded by their union from taking the recruitment test are requesting a second chance."

Speaking on the development, Governor El-Rufai stated that every teacher willing, would be given a chance to apply and be considered for recruitment; as SUBEB has a programme of continuous recruitment.

He stated: “We are not interested in pushing anyone away.

“We are pushing bad people away so that good ones can come in. That is why we are recruiting 25,000 to take the place of 21,780."

He also warned NUT officials to stop harassing teachers who choose to report to their duty posts, and to stop seizing registers.

He stated: “The right to strike does not include the right to prevent others from working. Union officials are reminded that school registers are public property, and seizing them amounts to an illegal act.”